Investigaton On Oil Removal From Oily Sludge Through Microemulsion

A large mounts of oil sludge will be produced in the processes of oil exploitation andrefining. As a kind of dangerous waste, its composition is complex, with high water content,and the system is very stable. Improper handling will seriously pollute the environment. If wecan remove oil from the sludge efficiently, it will not only give us an access to get economicbenefits, but also produce significant environment benefits.With the environmental regulations become more and more rigorous and consummate,harmless, resources, comprehensive utilization will become the tendency of oil sludgeprocessing technology. Microemulsion has the characteristics of ultra-low interfacial tension.If the oil sludge is treated using microemulsion as detergent or preparing microemulsion bythe oil in the sludge directly, the stability of the sludge will be destroyed and oil removedfrom the sludge. The main purpose of this work is to provide basic data for industrialapplications in the future.Microemulsions were prepared with kerosene, diesel and other fuels to use as detergentin washing the sludge. The relationship between alcohols, salts, etc. and microemulsionphases were investigated. The best formula of detergents which can be used extensively andefficiently was found. The experiment results show that during 60 to 90 minutes, optimalWinsorâ…¢microemulion can give a high deoiling efficiency. Low-speed stirring is useful forsludge washing.This research tried to prepare microemulsion with oil in the sludge directly. Therelationship between surfactants, salts and microemulsion phase state was investigate. Thebest experimental conditions were obtained, and a kind of cheapest formula that could givehigher efficiency was determined. The results show that an appropriate increase inexperimental time can improve the deoiling rate, and gets the highest efficiency when optimalWinsorâ…¢microemulion turns up. Comparing with the later method, the former one gives higher deoiling efficiency.However, the oil removed from the sludge is not very clean, and fuels were used in preparingdetergents, which is not economical. The later method gives lower deoiling efficiency, but theoil recovered is cleaner and the operation is simpler than the former.